Reverb

Tools

Holy crap. Twenty-o-nine. Watch out, man, the future is almost here ... Wait for it ... Now?! No? Oh well, a couple more weeks to go. ... I just hope the future is all it was cracked up to be!

To paraphrase from the opening line from their excellent debut album, Recollect, the very same album being celebrated on Friday, Jan. 2, at the Black Sheep, "It's been a long time coming, but they're finally here / The ReMINDers / Recollect / Aja Black / Big Samir." That just about sums it up, except for that the honorable Black Pegasus is hosting, and Infinite Mindz and Sever Truth are opening, and that anyone with any interest in positively uplifting and intelligent, socio-political underground independent hip-hop who isn't at this show is d-u-m with a capital B. Check it, don't wreck it.

Were Elvis still alive today, certainly he'd be celebrating what would have been his 74th birthday next Thursday, Jan. 8, at the Rocket Room with the Chris Winters Show. Now, I say "were he alive" because, no sir, I just don't buy the conspiracy that Elvis is still alive. Total absurdity! Every sane man knows it was really Elvis who died at birth, and it was his evil identical twin brother Jesse Garon Presley whose pelvic thrusts fueled the fires of the early rock 'n roll movement, and that is who really got spotted at that Burger King in Michigan and is living with JFK in a nursing home in east Texas. Regardless, show the dude some respect. Shake it, don't break it!

Jameson Becker, well-known locally for his work behind the drum kit for the defunct Colorado emo pioneers Laymen Terms, and currently with the legendary weedcore rockers -itis, will play a solo set of his "sad bastard country" on Jan. 8 at the Tam O'Shanter Pub. In addition to a big helping of his original shit, he promises a lot of "Merle, Waylon and Hank" to keep you in the drinking mood. Tip it, don't sip it!

Kinfolks will be hosting a series of shows featuring touring musicians from three of the most notable music cities in the world, starting this Friday, Jan. 2, with Austin's Jason Eady, whose Wild Eyed Serenade made it into No Depression magazine's readers' poll for the Top 50 albums of 2007. Good stuff no doubt, with Mike Clark opening. But the very next evening, Saturday the III, they'll bring in Jimmy Davis from Memphis, Tenn., who can claim "Premier Male Vocalist" honors five times over by the Memphis chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Again, not too shabby. Completing the trilogy will be Nashville's remarkable fiddling sensation Casey Driessen and his band, the Colorfools, on Thursday, Jan. 8. C'mon, enjoyeth, don't destroyeth!

Lastly for the week, Jason Bennett, a self-proclaimed "washed-up 40-year-old folkie who happens to have a day job and who is also a daddy," is throwing a bone to corporate retail with a couple of free shows, one on Friday, Jan. 2, and another on the 16th, at Borders (2120 Southgate Road). Bennett's easygoing folk pays homage to such greats as the Guthries, Dylan, Ochs and McGuire, all the while maintaining relevance in the post-reality of the modern world. So there you have it. Attend it, don't condescend it!